June 14, 2012
Trent J. Perrotto
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0321
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-201
NASA ADMINISTRATOR BOLDEN VISITS SPACEX HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visited SpaceX
Headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., Thursday, capping a tour of SpaceX
facilities to thank employees for their part in making the first
mission by a private company to the International Space Station a
success.
Bolden and SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk addressed more than
1,000 employees who helped design, launch and safely recover the
company's Dragon capsule in May following its trip to the space
station.
"NASA has its sights set on reaching an asteroid and Mars and
commercial space companies like SpaceX are helping make that possible
by taking over the challenging transportation of cargo to low Earth
orbit," Bolden said. "The International Space Station is the key to
our human spaceflight efforts right now and SpaceX's successful
resupply demonstration mission helped ensure it can achieve its full
potential. We look forward to Dragon becoming a regular visitor to
the station."
While on-site, Bolden had an opportunity to see the first Dragon
spacecraft to be recovered by the company in December 2010, following
a demonstration mission to orbit and safely return a capsule.
The trip to Hawthorne followed a visit by Bolden and Musk Wednesday to
the SpaceX Rocket Development Facility in McGregor, Texas, where they
viewed the most recently recovered Dragon capsule. The spacecraft
splashed down in the Pacific Ocean May 31 following its 9-day mission
to carry and return cargo to the space station.
Bolden also had the opportunity to view some of the 1,367 pounds of
cargo the Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth. Dragon currently is
the only spacecraft capable of returning a significant quantity of
science experiments and cargo from the station. Experiments will be
given back to researchers hoping to gain new insights provided by the
station's unique microgravity environment. The cargo was transferred
to NASA June 13 and will be taken to the agency's Johnson Space
Center in Houston for further processing.
Dragon's journey to the station was SpaceX's second demonstration
mission under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
(COTS) Program, which provides investments intended to lead to
regular resupply missions to the space station and stimulate the
commercial space industry in the United States.
Images of Bolden and Musk in Hawthorne and McGregor are available at:
http://go.nasa.gov/Ku0Ctq
For more information about NASA's COTS Program and SpaceX, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacex
For more information about Administrator Bolden, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/bolden_bio.html
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